softimagefandomcom-20200214-history
History and Versions
Softimage Creative Enviroment In 1986 National Film Board of Canada filmmaker Daniel Langlois, in partnership with software engineers Richard Mercille and Laurent Lauzon, began developing an integrated 3D modeling, animation, and rendering package with a graphical interface suited for visual artists. The software was initially demonstrated at Siggraph in 1988 and was released for Silicon Graphics workstations as the Softimage Creative Environment.1 Its character animation tools expanded substantially with the addition of inverse kinematics in the second release, which was used to animate the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.2 Softimage Creative Environment was adopted by major visual effects studios like Industrial Light and Magic and Digital Domain for use in their production pipelines, which also typically included software from Alias and Pixar as well as a variety of custom tools. Softimage | 3D In 1994, Microsoft acquired Softimage, Co. with the intention of bringing high-end 3D animation software to its burgeoning Windows NT platform, and subsequently rechristened it "Softimage|3D."3In January 1995, Softimage|3D was announced as the official 3D development tool for the Sega Saturn.4 The first Windows port of Softimage|3D, version 3.0, was released in early 1996.5 Softimage|3D Extreme 3.5, released later that year, included particle effects and the mental ray renderer, which offered area lights, ray tracing, and other advanced features.6 3D paint functionality was added a year later in version 3.7.7. Softimage 3D continued its legend till May 2002. Softimage|XSI In the late 1990s, Softimage Co. began developing a successor to Softimage|3D codenamed "Sumatra," which was designed with a more modern and extensible architecture to compete with other major packages like Alias|Wavefront's Maya.8 Development was delayed during a 1998 acquisition by Avid Technology, and in the summer of 2000 Softimage|3D's successor was finally released as Softimage XSI.910 Because of Softimage|3D's entrenched user base, minor revisions continued until the final version of Softimage|3D, version 4.0, was released in 2002.11Development of XSI under Avid continued till 2008, and during that time ICE was created a phenomenal node based system that literraly was ready to kill all competition. * Sumatra Core (late 90s) * Softimage|XSI (summer 2000) * Many Versions till is stable * Softimage|XSI 4.0 released 2002 * Softimage|XSI Version 5.0 * Softimage|XSI Versions 5.1 and 5.11 * Softimage|XSI Version 6.0 * Softimage|XSI Version 6.01 * Softimage|XSI Version 6.02 * Softimage|XSI Version 6.5 * Softimage|XSI Version 7.0 * Softimage|XSI Version 7.01 Autodesk Softimage Autodesk had already acquired Maya when Softimage its main rival came up with the killer feature of ICE. Buying the tech inside Softimage was somehow a one way solution. In a simmilar move Nvidia acquired the once great Mental Ray and with a deal between the two it also became availiable to Autodesk Maya. ADSK acquιred Softimage|XSI in 2008 within dark clouds of suspiciousness emerging from the userbase. However ADSK introduced yearly releases and promised a bright future for Softimage, eventualy 5 years later it took the decission to just 'keep Maya'. Autodesk Contribution to Softimage wasnt rich in terms of features that can keep it Unique and ahead of the competition. But ADSK did added features like face robot, crowd fx, embeded syflex, and did alot of work that a big company can do, like improving documentations, bugfixing etc. However Autodesk didnt manage to deliver the "bright future" for Softimage, or commercialize the minimalistic and very technical Softimage to a wide audience. Before the end times Softimage was simply offered as a bonus to Maya Suite. Many users critisize Autodesk for having an early plan to kill Softimage since 2008, others insist that Autodesk contribution was just OK. In March 4, 2014, it was announced that Autodesk Softimage would be discontinued after the release of the 2015 version, providing product support until April 30, 2016 * Autodesk Softimage 2015 released April 14, 2014 * Autodesk Softimage 2014 released April 12, 2013 * Autodesk Softimage 2013 released April 12, 2012 * Autodesk Softimage 2012 SAP (Subscription Advantage Pack) released September 27, 2011 * Autodesk Softimage 2012 released April 7, 2011 * Autodesk Softimage 2011 SAP (Subscription Advantage Pack) released October 7, 2010 * Autodesk Softimage 2011 released April 9, 2010 * Autodesk Softimage 2010 released September 14, 2009 * Autodesk Softimage 7.5 released February 20, 2009